National Lawyers Guild - torturehttp://www.nlg.org/taxonomy/term/226
enNLG Files Urgent Appeal Request to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Citing Life-Threatening Denial of Medical Care to Mumia Abu-Jamalhttp://www.nlg.org/news/releases/nlg-files-urgent-appeal-request-un-special-rapporteur-torture-citing-life-threatening
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/Mumia%20Urgent%20Appeal%20Request.png?itok=pRPtbbC6" width="400" height="558" alt="" /> </div>
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<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-05-05T11:00:00-04:00">May 5, 2015</span> </div>
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Tasha Moro </div>
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Communications Coordinator </div>
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<a href="mailto:communications@nlg.org">communications@nlg.org</a> </div>
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212-679-5100, ext. 15 </div>
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<p>NEW YORK— Members of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Heidi Boghosian and Natsu Saito, with Kathleen Cleaver of the Human Rights Research Fund, today delivered an <a href="//www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/OHCHR%20Mumia%20Abu-Jamal%20Urgent%20Appeal%20Request.pdf">Urgent Appeal Request</a> on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal to Juan Méndez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. The Request addresses the life-threatening denial of medical care to the 61-year-old journalist, political activist, and human rights defender who has been described as “perhaps America’s most famous prisoner.” </p>
<p>According to the Request, Mr. Abu-Jamal, currently in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, has life-threatening medical conditions that have been caused and/or exacerbated by his conditions of confinement. It reports that prison officials have consistently denied him appropriate medical treatment and adequate nutrition, and blocked access to his doctors, his lawyers and his family members. As a result, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s health has deteriorated rapidly over the past four months, and has now reached a crisis point where his life appears to be in imminent danger.</p>
<p>“We are concerned by the pattern that has emerged of willful neglect of Mr. Abu-Jamal’s serious, even life-threatening, medical issues, interspersed with responses that deal with particular symptoms in a scattershot fashion, rather than trying to identify and address the underlying causes of his potentially life-threatening illness,” the Request states. </p>
<p>The Request asks the Special Rapporteur to review of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s treatment under the Urgent Appeal procedure and to urge the United States government to comply with its obligations under international human rights law by ensuring, immediately, that Mr. Abu-Jamal (1) be provided regular and ongoing examinations, reliable diagnoses, and medically appropriate, comprehensive treatment; (2) be provided access to an endocrinologist, a dermatologist, an oncologist, and other specialist(s) as necessary; (3) be provided with a diet appropriate to his medical conditions; and (4) be assured of contact with his attorneys.</p>
<p>“For over 30 years, from death row, Mumia Abu-Jamal provided a thoughtful and powerful voice for the dispossessed, and he continues to do so from his sickbed. It now appears that only other human rights defenders can prevent his voice from being silenced by death as a result of state sanctioned medical neglect,” the Urgent Appeal Request concludes.</p>
<p>View the full Urgent Appeal Request to Juan Méndez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, <a href="//www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/OHCHR%20Mumia%20Abu-Jamal%20Urgent%20Appeal%20Request.pdf">here</a>.</p>
<p><em>The National Lawyers Guild was formed in 1937 as the nation’s first racially integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.</em></p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/62" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mumia Abu-Jamal</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/226" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">torture</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/152" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">United Nations</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/345" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political prisoners</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/266" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">prisoners&#039; rights</a> </div>
Tue, 05 May 2015 14:56:43 +0000Tasha1678 at http://www.nlg.orghttp://www.nlg.org/news/releases/nlg-files-urgent-appeal-request-un-special-rapporteur-torture-citing-life-threatening#commentsIs there hope for the rule of law?http://www.nlg.org/news/blog/there-hope-rule-law
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_node/public/images/Guantanamo_captives_in_January_2002.jpg?itok=8MLPeP-p" width="400" height="252" alt="Guantanamo captives in 2002. Public domain photo by Petty Officer 1st class Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy." title="Guantanamo captives in 2002. Public domain photo by Petty Officer 1st class Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy." /> </div>
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Nadia Kayyali </div>
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<p dir="ltr">The Supreme Court’s decision in <em><a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-1025_ihdj.pdf">Clapper vs Amnesty Int’l</a></em> has now made it nearly impossibly to review through civil lawsuits many of the government’s most egregious tactics in the war on terror. While the decision in <em>Clapper</em> is new, it reflects a continuing saga of a war not on terror, but on the rule of law. Another part of that saga has involved our government’s treatment of, and denial of due process to, those accused of terrorism.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The prison at Guantánamo Bay has been plagued both by the continued specter of <a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/08/21/arrogance-and-torture-a-history-of-guantanamo/">mistreatment of prisoners and the major deficiencies</a> in the legal process afforded prisoners, namely military commission proceedings. Only months after the prison’s <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/focus/2009/07/20097221092685420.html">November 13, 2001</a> creation, the government faced a <em>habeas</em> corpus <a href="http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/past-cases/rasul-bush">legal challenge</a> for failure to provide access to attorneys, or even charge detainees, in <em><a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2003/2003_03_334/">Rasul vs Bush</a></em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Since then, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23373-2004Jun7.html">legal justifications for torture</a> have surfaced, public outrage has waxed and waned, and President Obama has failed to fulfill his campaign promise to close Guantánamo. In fact, he has made it clear that there <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/16/torture-memos-bush-administration">will be no prosecution</a> for those who justified and committed torture at the camp.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At the same time, prisoners have been subjected to military commissions rather than civilian trials, and many of the procedures related to those commissions have faced challenges.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Most recently, in<a href="http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/03/08/2911843/war-crimes-prosecutor-agrees-guantanamo.html"> filings submitted </a>to the Court of Military Commissions Review, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins agreed that the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit had the right to hear the challenge to the military court’s practices. Yet Martins defended a security regime in military commission hearings at Guantánamo challenged by <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/25/3253088/media-aclu-appeal-guantanamo-court.html">fourteen media organizations and the ACLU</a>, who argue that military restrictions amount to censorship.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This comes after a major struggle among military lawyers last year over <a href="http://www.lawfareblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2_Enclosure-5-Order-Governing-Written-Communications.pdf">an order</a> issued by the commanding officer at Guantánamo, Rear Admiral D. B. Woods, which <a href="http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/12/ap-guantanamo-bay-defense-lawyers-irate-new-rules-122711/">created a regime for screening</a> of confidential attorney-client communications.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Colonel J.P Colwell, Guantánamo Chief Defense Counsel, issued an ethics instruction to all attorneys in the Office of the Chief Defense Counsel, instructing them not to comply with the order. Attorneys in several cases challenged the order. There was no ruling on those challenges, however, before proceedings in at least one of the cases at issue, that of Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu Al-Nashiri. There was also no redress for the difficulties created for his legal defense team by the order.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Concerns over confidentiality have only increased since then. As Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake puts it, “With each hearing before the Guantánamo military commission, it becomes <a href="http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/02/15/the-continued-subversion-of-attorney-client-privilege-at-guantanamo-bay-prison/">more evident</a> that privileged legal communications defense attorneys are supposed to be able to have with their clients are being violated.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">In February of this year, it was revealed that the <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-12/world/37055150_1_defense-lawyers-attorney-client-communications-military-judge">military hid microphones</a> in rooms where attorneys meet with their clients. In addition, attorneys for five Guantánamo prisoners have alleged that their clients’ confidential <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/guantanamo-detainee-documents_n_2687141.html">legal documents were seized</a> from their rooms by guards. Ironically, they noted the theft happened during a pretrial hearing regarding, of all things, claims of military eavesdropping on confidential communication.</p>
<p>To compound the concerns around this eavesdropping, Guantánamo defense attorneys Scott McKay and David Nevin were two of the plaintiffs in <em>Clapper</em>. In a statement made before the Supreme Court hearing, <a href="http://www.aclu.org/node/14902/#statement_mckaynevin">they noted</a>, “Our work may require us to correspond with potential witnesses about sensitive information, making us even more susceptible to improper government surveillance.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Meanwhile, the Obama administration has made it very clear that Guantánamo is nowhere near being closed, and has offered not even an aspirational date for closure, regardless of the fact that the majority of prisoners left are low risk and low value. While many of the detainees currently there have been <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/guantanamo-detainees-frustrations-simmering-lawyers-and-others-say/2013/03/16/47fc4c0e-8d9a-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html">cleared for release</a>, congressional <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/guantanamo-detainees-cleared-for-release-but-left-in-limbo/2011/11/03/gIQAJivM3M_story.html">restrictions</a> and a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hyn8evdoExJnRld5FARcJyhJjxgQ?docId=CNG.63d37ffe61ab06e3f0f27c26beb7f168.301">lack of political will</a> from the Obama administration have made their release impossible.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Prisoners at the facility are currently staging an <a href="http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=12373">ongoing hunger strike</a>, which started after personal belongings, including<a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/11/guantanamo-detainees-stage-hunger-strike-after-korans-confiscated/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29&amp;utm_content=Netvibes"> Korans, were confiscated</a> from some of these low risk prisoners. The government acknowledged that the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-military-says-21-men-not-eating-as-hunger-strike-grows-at-guantanamo/2013/03/18/0981a61a-8fdc-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html">strike has spread </a>to more prisoners and that some of the strikers are “being fed through tubes inserted into their stomachs.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">A letter from attorneys for the prisoners stated, “We understand that Arabic interpreters employed by the prison have been searching the men’s Korans in ways that constitute desecration according to their religious beliefs, and that guards have been disrespectful during prayer times.”</p>
<p>At this point, particularly in light of these violations of due process and human rights, there is no real justification why admittedly low-risk prisoners continue to be held. In fact, there is no real justification for the continued use of military commissions at all.</p>
<p>Case in point, on March 8th, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-al-qaeda-spokesperson-sulaiman-abu-ghaith-be-prosecuted-in-federal-court/guantanamo-military-commissions-have-no-jurisdiction-with-conspiracy-charges">Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was arraigned in federal district court</a> in the Southern District of New York. Abu Gaith, Osama Bin Laden’s son-in-law, <a href="http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/08/why-bin-ladens-son-in-law-is-in-new-york-city-not-gitmo/#ixzz2MwlgeOHw">was captured in Turkey</a>. His case is exactly the kind that would have gone to Guantánamo in years past.</p>
<p>Yet as Guantánamo defense attorney Lt. Colonel Sterling Thomas states: “federal courts have again become the preferred method of trying those accused of terrorism.” For now, however, this seems to be perhaps an aspirational statement; there are still <a href="http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo">166 detainees</a> at Guantánamo.</p>
<p><em>Originally appeared on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's</em> <a href="http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog">People's Blog for the Constitution</a>.</p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/313" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Guantánamo</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/314" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">War on Terror</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/226" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">torture</a> </div>
Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:18:40 +0000Tasha887 at http://www.nlg.orghttp://www.nlg.org/news/blog/there-hope-rule-law#commentsLetter Regarding the Nomination of John Brennan to Head the CIAhttp://www.nlg.org/news/announcements/letter-regarding-nomination-john-brennan-head-cia
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<p>Senator Dianne Feinstein</p>
<p>Chairwoman, Senate Intelligence Committee</p>
<p>United States Senate<br />
331 Hart Senate Office Building<br />
Washington, D.C. 20510</p>
<p>Dear Sen. Feinstein:</p>
<p>The National Lawyers Guild writes to express its opposition to the nomination of John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency. As President Obama’s current counter-terrorism adviser, Brennan bears responsibility for the administration’s drone program, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17exum.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">which is killing civilians and sowing anti-American sentiment</a> throughout the world. Brennan also stands accused of having <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/30/us-obama-nominations-brennan-idUSBRE90T07I20130130">detailed, contemporaneous knowledge of the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”</a> on captured terrorism suspects during the Bush administration. The impact and legality of the drone program and the extent of Brennan’s involvement in the Bush torture program should be central questions at his Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing.</p>
<p>As you know, international outrage surrounding the use of lethal drones has spurred the United Nations envoy on counter-terrorism and human rights to launch an investigation into the impact of drone strikes on civilians. Drone strikes kill not only their intended targets, but also innocent people, a fact that Brennan denied in 2011 just months after a Pakistan drone strike <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/01/09/new-questions-over-cia-nominee-john-brennans-denial-of-civilian-drone-deaths/">killed dozens</a> at a tribal gathering. According to <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drone-data/">research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism</a>, between 2004 and 2013, CIA drone attacks in Pakistan killed up to 3,461 people—as many as 891 of them civilians. The extralegal drone program has expanded dramatically under Brennan and if he is appointed director of the CIA we fear that it will continue to escalate.</p>
<p>The U.S. drone program reflects a lack of regard for human rights and international law. Christof Heyns, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/21/drone-strikes-international-law-un">said</a> at a seminar in June 2012 that CIA attacks in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere would encourage other states to “flout long-established human rights standards.” In <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session20/A-HRC-20-22-Add3_en.pdf">a 28-page report</a> addressed to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Heyns implores the Obama administration and the CIA to ensure that the drone program complies with international humanitarian law.</p>
<p>The administration has also kept the program veiled in secrecy, violating the basic tenets of a democratic society and obstructing evaluation of the lawfulness of the drone program. <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml">Article 51 of the U.N. Charter</a>, which the U.S. has implicitly invoked to justify strikes, requires that "measures taken by Members in the exercise of [their] right to self-defense... be immediately reported to the Security Council." The U.S. has relied on Article 51 to justify drone strikes, but ignores the clause demanding transparency.</p>
<p>Further, a Department of Justice <a href="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/020413_DOJ_White_Paper.pdf">white paper</a> recently obtained by the news media attempts to justify the killing of U.S. citizens. The document outlines a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/us/politics/us-memo-details-views-on-killing-citizens-in-al-qaeda.html">rationale</a> for targeted assassinations of people who intelligence officials believe are plotting to kill Americans. While the white paper attempts to clarify the legal framework under which the drone policy is operating, it has rightly drawn widespread criticism for vesting the ultimate power to kill an individual in the executive branch and for disavowing the need for judicial review.</p>
<p>We urge the Senate to examine Brennan’s deep involvement with Bush administration policies of torture. As one of the Bush Administration's most public advocates of torture, Brennan asserted that so-called enhanced interrogation techniques and extraordinary rendition of detainees had <a href="http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/01/07/brennans-support-for-torture-is-not-an-accusation/">"saved lives."</a> According to multiple sources familiar with official records, Brennan was <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/30/us-obama-nominations-brennan-idUSBRE90T07I20130130">a regular recipient</a> of CIA messages about illegal and inhumane aspects of the agency's counter-terrorism program after September 2001, including the use of waterboarding. Though Brennan publicly disavowed waterboarding after temporarily leaving government service in 2005, official records are silent on whether he opposed the techniques while at the spy agency.</p>
<p>We ask that the Senate examine the legality of Brennan’s policies in the drone program and assess his participation in Bush administration torture practices before considering his confirmation. We urge the Senate to ultimately reject the nomination of John Brennan rather than promote the author of one failed strategy and overseer of another.</p>
<div>Sincerely,</div>
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<div>Azadeh Shahshahani, NLG President</div>
<p> </p>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/252" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">John Brennan</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/226" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">torture</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/253" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">George W. Bush</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/254" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Barack Obama</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/255" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">CIA</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/256" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drones</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/257" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">extralegal assassinations</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/66" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">international law</a> </div>
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:37:19 +0000Tasha852 at http://www.nlg.orghttp://www.nlg.org/news/announcements/letter-regarding-nomination-john-brennan-head-cia#commentsVolume 69, No. 4http://www.nlg.org/resource/nlg-review/volume-69-no-4
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<p><em>NLG Review</em> Volume 69, Number 4 includes the following articles:</p>
<ul><li>The Future of Diversity by Erwin Chemerinsky</li>
<li>I Beg Your Pardon: Maintaining the Absolute Ban on Torture Through the Presidential Pardon by Stacy Cammarano</li>
<li>Social Justice in Turbulent Times: Critical Race Theory and Occupy Wall Street by Nick J. Sciullo</li>
<li>Toward the Heart of Justice by Richael Faithful</li>
<li>A review by Anne O'Berry of the book <em>Rendition to Torture</em></li>
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<a href="/resource/nlg-review" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NLG Review</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/35" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">OWS</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/226" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">torture</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/227" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">critical race theory</a> </div>
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<a href="/taxonomy/term/228" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">diversity</a> </div>
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:03:04 +0000Tasha824 at http://www.nlg.orghttp://www.nlg.org/resource/nlg-review/volume-69-no-4#comments